I know the next laptop I buy won't be a Dell. For the longest time, the Business line of Dell laptops included heavy, voluminous but reliable bricks. The price was fair, they were a bit larger than necessary, but they were durable and reliable. The Dell Home machine were notoriously brittle, cheap, and quick to fail. Home also included India support. Over the past 10 years, a lot has changed. The Dell Business line laptop I have now (Dell Latitude D620) started having serious problems about 1 week ago:
1) After being on for a while, multiple vertical lines would flicker on-screen, and move, become thicker then thinner, and then go away after the system froze. (Even magic syskey request was no help.)
2) Sometimes, the screen would turn black, and then a fade to dark metallic green would appear from the top left, and fade to the bottom right, and then shift to a purple fade -- sort of like a screen saver, except it was frozen.
3) Random rectangular blocks would appear that would cover the fading colors.
4) On reboot, the machine would freeze during POST, or fail to even display the Dell logo, instead providing a black background, then power off on its own.
5) The underside of the machine actually felt hot to the touch -- hotter than it did when it was new, but temperature sensors continued to report the same temperatures, even though it felt hotter.
6) The problems did not appear when I wasn't pushing the system very hard, or in cases where I had fans circulating air directly on the base. (This was not necessary just before last week. Before last week, it just worked, as-is without any extra cooling.
After all of the above, I contacted Dell support to get them to replace the motherboard. After talking with 4 "tech" and being disconnected their online chat 3 times over a 3.75 hour period, they finally sent out a new motherboard and tech to replace it.
After the motherboard was replaced, the running temperature on the underside of the laptop is as cool as it was the day I bought it, and all of the problems are now gone.
Best guesses as to the failure:
1) Thermal probes are providing the incorrect temperature, and as a result, the speed stepping, and fan RPM are not keeping up, resulting in higher than normal running temperatures which ultimately shorted the lifespan of the hardware as soldier/weld points expanded/contracted, or melted or both because of the temperature extremes.
2) Hardware defect (specific to this unit, or maybe across the entire model) became a emergent property of the system as a result of extended use in the real world
I am glad that I paid for the extended warrantee, because without it, I would have a hunk-o-junk paperweight.
Anyway, I really liked the IBM ThinkPad from the early 1990's. They used standard hardware, were reliable (I have a ThinkPad 560 that still works, even if the HD failed.) Sadly, I know that IBM ThinkPad are now Lenovo ThinkPad, and I've heard mixed reviews about these systems since the name was changed.
The Panasonic ToughBooks look good to me too. I've never owned a panasonic laptop, but the toughbooks look durable enough for my man-handling of technical equipment.
Things I liked about Dell Latitude D620:
Hardware was "standard" enough to let me get all hardware working in Linux with little effort except the fingerprint scanner (which I wouldn't use anyway) and the "WinModem" (which required payment for a working driver.)
Included Nvidia video which support 3d accelleration and support with nvidia driver for GLX and other lib for hardware 3d acceleration.
Things I didn't like:
They used a "WinModem" to save on costs, but increase driver difficulty and steal more cpu cycles when using the modem.
Support online sucked. On one issue, they said that windows needed to be (re)-installed to replaced the DVD Drive which was overheating.
Hardware failure after less than 2 years in the motherboard/video card. (Video is integrated, so not really a "card" in the conventional sense.)
Do you have specific gripes and likes about the model laptop you are using? I'm going to be in the market to buy a new laptop in about 1 year. I'm interested in what to avoid and why, and what to seriously consider and why. Please specify what OS and distribution (and/or version) if you can.
Thanks!
1) After being on for a while, multiple vertical lines would flicker on-screen, and move, become thicker then thinner, and then go away after the system froze. (Even magic syskey request was no help.)
2) Sometimes, the screen would turn black, and then a fade to dark metallic green would appear from the top left, and fade to the bottom right, and then shift to a purple fade -- sort of like a screen saver, except it was frozen.
3) Random rectangular blocks would appear that would cover the fading colors.
4) On reboot, the machine would freeze during POST, or fail to even display the Dell logo, instead providing a black background, then power off on its own.
5) The underside of the machine actually felt hot to the touch -- hotter than it did when it was new, but temperature sensors continued to report the same temperatures, even though it felt hotter.
6) The problems did not appear when I wasn't pushing the system very hard, or in cases where I had fans circulating air directly on the base. (This was not necessary just before last week. Before last week, it just worked, as-is without any extra cooling.
After all of the above, I contacted Dell support to get them to replace the motherboard. After talking with 4 "tech" and being disconnected their online chat 3 times over a 3.75 hour period, they finally sent out a new motherboard and tech to replace it.
After the motherboard was replaced, the running temperature on the underside of the laptop is as cool as it was the day I bought it, and all of the problems are now gone.
Best guesses as to the failure:
1) Thermal probes are providing the incorrect temperature, and as a result, the speed stepping, and fan RPM are not keeping up, resulting in higher than normal running temperatures which ultimately shorted the lifespan of the hardware as soldier/weld points expanded/contracted, or melted or both because of the temperature extremes.
2) Hardware defect (specific to this unit, or maybe across the entire model) became a emergent property of the system as a result of extended use in the real world
I am glad that I paid for the extended warrantee, because without it, I would have a hunk-o-junk paperweight.
Anyway, I really liked the IBM ThinkPad from the early 1990's. They used standard hardware, were reliable (I have a ThinkPad 560 that still works, even if the HD failed.) Sadly, I know that IBM ThinkPad are now Lenovo ThinkPad, and I've heard mixed reviews about these systems since the name was changed.
The Panasonic ToughBooks look good to me too. I've never owned a panasonic laptop, but the toughbooks look durable enough for my man-handling of technical equipment.
Things I liked about Dell Latitude D620:
Hardware was "standard" enough to let me get all hardware working in Linux with little effort except the fingerprint scanner (which I wouldn't use anyway) and the "WinModem" (which required payment for a working driver.)
Included Nvidia video which support 3d accelleration and support with nvidia driver for GLX and other lib for hardware 3d acceleration.
Things I didn't like:
They used a "WinModem" to save on costs, but increase driver difficulty and steal more cpu cycles when using the modem.
Support online sucked. On one issue, they said that windows needed to be (re)-installed to replaced the DVD Drive which was overheating.
Hardware failure after less than 2 years in the motherboard/video card. (Video is integrated, so not really a "card" in the conventional sense.)
Do you have specific gripes and likes about the model laptop you are using? I'm going to be in the market to buy a new laptop in about 1 year. I'm interested in what to avoid and why, and what to seriously consider and why. Please specify what OS and distribution (and/or version) if you can.
Thanks!
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